While walking down Yongjia Road a few minutes ago, I happened to pass this poster outside of a photo studio specializing in portraits of children. It’s really something: Neglecting, for today, a discussion as to whether or why a Shanghainese parent would dress their son as if he’s the star of a pre-school production of…
All posts in Weird China
” …few exchanged garbage for admission.”
I recently spoke to a friend who works for a five-star hotel in a first-tier Chinese city about the precipitous decline in room bookings since the economic crisis hit. He told me that – despite the drop in business – his chain has no plans to drop its prices for fear of devaluing its brand…
Blood as Economic Indicator?
I’m tied up with a real project (real deadline) early this week, and posting will be light. But no deadline can stand in the way of Shanghai Daily’s round-up of Shanghai-based Spring Festival statistics, and this head-scratcher of an editor’s note: EDITOR’S note: The economic downturn seemed to have little effect on Shanghai’s Lunar New…
Giant UFO Over Shanghai – UPDATED
[UPDATE: I can’t believe that I have to do this, but after a half dozen emails questioning my sanity (folks: read the whole post, not just the title!), it seems that I do. So, let me set the record straight: the UFO “video” referenced in this post is an amusing hoax, and the purpose of…
Flying Turtles and the Spinning God of Real Estate.
Below, the soon-to-be iconic view from the 94th floor observation deck at the newly opened Shanghai World Financial Center, taken last night. Full-access to the three observation decks is a pricey RMB 150 (more than the cost of a trip to the Empire State Building’s outdoor deck!), and perhaps – in recognition of that fact…
Shanghai ? Argentina
On Thursday I published a short dispatch at the Atlantic in which I described the deep affinity that Shanghai’s sports fans have for the Argentine national team. So it makes a certain kind of cosmic sense that – when I arrived at Shanghai Stadium this afternoon for the match between Argentina and Australia – I…
The Return of Olympic Hostess Voodoo
Back in February Shanghai’s Xinmin Evening News ran a short item in regard to the selection criteria being used to find forty college-aged Shanghai “beauties” to serve as Olympic medal hostesses in Beijing that was quickly picked up – in English – by China Daily: According to the requirement, candidates should be between 18 and…
UFOs Over Nanjing: “Not rare but regular.”
For those who follow these things, there’s been quite a bit of UFO news in the Chinese media over the last week. The fun started on June 23rd, with reports that a UFO had been seen and photographed near Congqing – during a laser light show. Following previous practice in covering UFO sightings, Xinhua reported…
Big Dumb Recycling Machine.
[12 September 2008 – Suddenly, this post is generating several hits per day from Venezuela. Could someone explain why?] A couple of weeks ago Shanghai Daily reported that China’s first automatic “drinking bottle recycling machine” had been installed on Nanjing Road for RMB 30,000 (US$4290). The idea is simple: after finishing your canned or bottled…
The Wuxi White House
I’m just back from an interesting couple of days in Wuxi, and I promise to resume substantive blogging over the weekend. In the meantime, though, a photo of a building that Wuxi’s locals (especially local government officials) like to call the “White House.” They also like to ask visiting Americans (at least, this visiting American)…